Album dossier / 1983

Enter

Cybotron · Electro/Proto-Techno

Recorded in Richard 'Rik' Davis's gear-filled home studio in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Enter paired Davis -- a Vietnam veteran ten years older than Atkins, obsessed with Tangerine Dream, Hendrix and Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- with 19-year-old Juan Atkins, whom he met in a community college electronics class. Their 1981 single 'Alleys of Your Mind,' self-released on Davis's Deep Space Records, is widely cited as the first true techno record and became a Detroit radio hit after DJ 'Electrifying Mojo' put it in rotation, reportedly outselling Prince's then-new 'Little Red Corvette' locally. Built from a Korg MS-10, funk basslines and dystopian, Vietnam-inflected lyrics about industrial decline, the album blended European electro (Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra) with funk and psych-rock; Atkins and Davis split in 1985 over creative differences -- Davis wanted to keep blending psych-rock with electro, Atkins wanted pure electronic music -- and Atkins went on to found Metroplex Records and pioneer Detroit techno proper as Model 500.